Category Archives: Biotechnology

“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.”–Albert Schweitzer

Ah memory. How fleeting and ephemeral–as well as inaccurate–it can be. Apparently, now, it can be transferred or even implanted falsely. Westworld may be closer than we think.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube(audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook

“Space in general gave us GPS – that’s not specifically NASA, but its investments in space.”–
Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Maybe NDT is right–NASA didn’t directly give us GPS as in Global Positioning System. But they are going to directly give us–or at least their astronauts–GPS as in Galactic Positioning System. What that portends for the ratings for Lost in Space is beyond the foresight of this blog. But hey, the plausibility of that series was already next to zero.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube(audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook

“Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself.”–Mark Twain

Happy Friday the 13th. With that cheerful note, we go straight to the foibles of the U.S. Congress. Did you really think that Senators that look and sound more like stuffed dinosaurs than live human beings could really extract anything meaningful from hearings with Mark Zuckerberg? Really? I didn’t think so. My audience is more with it than that.

“It’s not going to do any good to land on Mars if we’re stupid.”–Ray Bradbury

“You cannot be serious.”–John McEnroe

Is Vladimir Putin serious? He’s really going to put Russians on the moon by next year? Live Russians? Human Russians? Russian manikins, maybe. Or how about those nested Russian dolls? I have my hunches about his obvious hyperbole. Like maybe he’s goading a certain Western leader I won’t name to take it seriously and go broke trying to compete with him. All the while what he’s really doing is focusing his resources on hacking democracy and wreaking havoc.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube(audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook

–Next Big Future reports on the progress–and relative merits–of AD-Astra’s VX200SSTM VASIMR® prototype space propulsion engine. Recent test firings have brought them one step closer to enabling earth to mars transit in as little as 4 to 6 weeks. SpaceX, with its BFR, has aims at making the transit at similar speeds.

“Life is a DNA software system.”–Craig Ventner

You’ve heard it all, and lately you’re hearing it more. The singularity is near. Robots are going to take our jobs. Robots are going to take over altogether. Robots are even going to take over our sex lives. Yadda yadda yadda.

I’m not saying it won’t happen; I just think it’s farther away than the impression most people are getting from all the news. What’s here right now is genetic editing, and with it, the possibility of directing human evolution. The very real and very near possibility of changing what it means to be human. Read all the artificial intelligence and future of work articles–yes. But keep your eye on the gene editing ball–it’s here right now.

Seeking Delphi™ will be at SXSW 2018 in Austin, TX through Wednesday of next week. Stay tuned for updates on the Intelligent Future track.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube(audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook

“I don’t believe in a conspiracy to hide the existence of extraterrestrial life.”–David Duchovney

“Where are they?”–Enrico Fermi

If David Duchovney is right–and I for one agree with him–then Fermi and his paradox certainly become relevent. But it hardly proves that extraterrestrials don’t exist. It just proves we haven’t been able to confirm any signals or communication. What hampers us from doing so? The vastness of the universe? Our relatively inferior technology? Maybe they are hiding, as in Cixin Liu’s chilling novel The Dark Forrest? These are all possiblities, true. But in a strange ocurrance of the law of unintended consequences, the biggest current hindernece to finding E.T. could be bitcoin mining.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube(audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook

SETI/Cryptocurrencies–This heading might look like an oxymoron. But in a bizarre turn of events, the cornering of the GPU market by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining has created a shortage that is hitting the video game market, and even the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

“The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human.”–Aaron Carter

You’ve heard it all, and lately you’re hearing it more. The singularity is near. Robots are going to take our jobs. Robots are going to take over altogether. Robots are even going to take over our sex lives. Yadda yadda yadda.

I’m not saying it won’t happen; I just think it’s farther away than the impression most people are getting from all the news. What’s here right now is genetic editing, and with it, the possibility of directing human evolution. The very real and very near possibility of changing what it means to be human. Read all the artificial intelligence and future of work articles–yes. But listen to what Elizabeth Parrish has to say about modifying the human genome to reverse aging and to keep up–cognitively and physically–with robots.

Seeking Delphi™ will be on vacation next week. Enjoy the peace and quiet.

Self-Driving vehicles–Have we been hearing altogether too much about autonomous vehicle development, lately. Satirical web site, The Onion, seems to think so. The released the image below with headline Tesla Debuts Carless Driver.

Image Credit: The Onion

Thanks for visiting and reading. See you in two weeks.

While you’re reading about all this week’s future-related news, don’t forget that you can subscribe to Seeking Delphi™ podcasts on iTunes, PlayerFM, or YouTube(audio with slide show) and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook